1. Technical Field
The following description relates to setup operation to be performed on a computer to set up an operating state in a situation in which devices are connected to the computer.
2. Related Art
Recently, use of a network system in which devices are connected to a computer through a network cable, or use of a computer system in which a device having a first function and another device having a second function (different from the first function) are directly connected to a computer is increasing. In such a system, a user is able to use one of the devices, for example, by selecting one of the devices through a window in which all of the devices are listed.
Considering a situation in which five devices are connected to a user's computer, the user needs to select one of the five devices and to set up an operating state through use of a user interface (i.e., a setup window) of a device driver corresponding to a selected device. It should be noted that at a stage of selecting one of the five devices, the user may not know which of the five devices can support an operation state required by the user.
For this reason, there is a possibility that the user selects an inappropriate device which does not support the operating state required by the user. If the user notices that he selected the inappropriate device after the completion of setting up of the operating state on the user interface of the device driver, the operating state set up by the user comes to nothing. That is, the user needs to redo selection of a device and setup of a device driver until an appropriate device is selected.
Japanese Patent Provisional Publication No. 2003-99228 discloses a system in which information relating to printers provided in the system is stored in a server. In this system, the server receives a print job from a client computer and analyzes a printing state contained in the print job so that the print job is assigned to an appropriate one of the printers. In the publication No. 2003-99228, it is described that the user is not required to select one of the printers to be assigned the print job.
However, the publication does not teach how the user knows operating states which the devices in the system support and how the user designates a desirable operating state on the client computer.
It is understood that the above mentioned drawbacks of the conventional system applies to a system in which image reading devices (e.g., scanners) are provided.